Team SHDW Information

Short Story: Akuma vs. Bloodmane

Hey guys, this is TyForestWrites, and I'm back to write yet another Halloween special! Well, it's not really horror based, so it's more like a short story I wrote and released on Halloween. But hey, if Die Hard can be a Christmas movie, this can be a Halloween story. Hope you enjoy!
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Right before the events of Team SHDW Volume 2

Finding someone as elusive as Bloodmane was very... difficult to say the least. At least he now knew how it felt to be someone who was tracking him. Frustrating and nigh impossible. But he was Zander Rogue. He had killed over a hundred SDC mercenaries in a single night, survived an experimentation that granted him never before seen abilities, punched his way out of the White Fang HQ, and had defeated/killed anyone who had been sent his way or just flat out wanted a fight. If anyone was gonna track down this mercenary, it was gonna be him.

And he refused to let someone like Bloodmane escape his reach. He knew that the girl had known the former White Fang High Leader, Ghira Belladonna, but that was the extent of his knowledge about her other than the basics. She was always on the move, but seemed to like sticking around in the continent of Sanus, where the "kingdoms" of Vale and Vacuo were located. Zander had always hated the way the world addressed what were clearly countries. Kingdoms weren't kingdoms if they were missing the first half of the word. As if the leaders wanted to hang on to some semblance of royal power.

But Zander's thoughts were going off track. It made sense that Bloodmane would hang out in Vacuo, as it was easily the best place a merc like her could hide, but most of her sightings were placed closer to Vale, close to Mistral even. Personal preference, perhaps? Maybe she was a former Beacon student? If that's the case, it was curious to know how she would be affected by the school's recent crumbling. More recent sightings, after all, showed her venturing into Mistral a bit more often.

But Zander was confident that he would find her in eastern Vale, which was where he found himself, outside of a pub in a town called Higanbana. Because if there was any place to get good information, it was always in places like this. He walked in to hear someone playing a piano and the usual sounds of various conversations, though those were a bit quiet due to the place not being busy. He walked up to the bar and sat down on a stool, a few seats to the right of another patron, a female Faunus with white hair. The bartender was cleaning a shot glass before addressing Zander.

"Hello sir," the bartender greeted, "What can I get ya?"

"Information," Zander simply said, which was enough to halt the man's cleaning.

"...Well, I guess you wouldn't be the first," he sighed, "What do ya need to know?"

"The whereabouts of a certain someone named Bloodmane."

Instantly, all manner of noise ceased at once when that named was uttered. Zander glanced around to notice that everyone's eyes were now on him, even the pianist. It was an eerie feeling, at least until he noticed that there was one person not looking at him: the girl next to him at the bar. She looked too young to be in a pub, and was slurping on some carbonated drink through a straw. Once she was done, she suddenly slammed her drink down on the counter before turning to him.

"Who's asking?"

Akuma's eyes widened a bit. This was Bloodmane? She was certainly not making a good first impression of that were the case. He could feel Corvus actually snickering in his head. It had been a while since he had heard the Grimm utter a sound, and that didn't exactly lighten the mood. Bloodmane may not have looked all that intimidating, but he saw the glint in her eyes. There was a certain fire to them that ironically chilled Zander to his core. Nevertheless, he answered her.